Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-04-14
IN GENERAL


IN GENERAL
Beans are rich in nitrogen, and are
good for any sort of animals. Hogs NAV
be fattened on them. There is nothing
better for sheep, and they are just TIC
thing for cows il milk.
There is new way to work butter bv
putting it in whirling machine, in
coarsely woven sack, and whirIing the
buttermllk out of it. Water is let in and
this Is whirled out, and so the butter is
made ready to pack.
The calves want corn meal to make fat
which will keep them warm, bran to make
bone and sinew, oats ground to make
muscle and tissue, anu linseed meal to
keep the bowels healthy and the pores
open and to make the whole animal ma
chinery Work we'll.
When the butter is washed with brine
the salt is better mixed with it than when
the salt is put in dry. The better the
salt is mixed with the butter the more
uniform the flavor. The salt does not
mlngle with the butter until it is dissolv-
ed, and 1t does not dissolve until it alb
serbs enough Of the buttermilk to do so.
working the butter helps to mix the salt
through it. But at the same tine it
brushes the grain of the butter and makes
1t salvy. Washing out the buttermilk
with brine when the butter is in a
graduated form Or like grains, is the best
way.
For duckllngs mix corn meal and bran
equal parts and make into a mush and
feed this In milk. If milk is not to be
had, put some ground meat Or craoklings
| In the mush. Clear, raw corn meal mix
ed with water is not fit feed for duck
llngs. Until past the downy stage they
should have no water to swim in. GiAe
them all they want to drink Put gravel
and sand in the bottom of the water YES
sci.
On the average seventy-five or 1OO-acre
farm 1t Will not cost over fifty cents
apiece In clean cash to keep q small flock
of laying hens. With fair treatment thew
will average 100 eggs each in tie wear.
AZ hfteen cents dozen the egg product
Will be worth S1.25 per hen. If 20 per
cent. OF the eggs be used in the family,
and Tor Matching to keep up the stock,
we shall still have 81 left as an Offset to
the fifty cents worth of food consumed
The difference is fifty cents, which is 100
dropplngs may be set over against the
labor and care bestowed on the flock. Tt
pays to keep hens.
Grow pease to make the pork Of. Grow
as early as may De; they will stand cooler
weather and soil than most other crops.
Mellow up potato or corn stubble with an
Acme harrow, and drill them in at the
rate of two Or two and half bushels per
acre. As soon as the pease are formed in
the pods: NOW and feed. The pigs will
eat vines and all clean, until they get ripe
enough to shell in handling. Then cut,
cure and thresh, saving the stems care
fully for the sheep in the winter. They
are cheaply grown, easily handled, and
leave the ground in splendid condition
for sheep. 1t will be big gain to both
the pease and wheat to SOW good super
phosphate literally with them.
Care should be exercised in feeding
poultry, that in their food there shall be
nothing that has a rank flavor, or it will
be detected in the eggs and even in the
flesh of fowls. Chopped onions Or celery
will impaTt their flavor to the egg; and,
if fed very long upon such food and
then killed, the meat will have the same
flavor. The same will also occur if hens
are left TO feed at the manure heap or
drink barnyard water. In such case, as
it has been remarked by writer, the
eggs will remind one very much of badly
prepared tripe. By little care all these
bad results can be avoided and desirable
conditions maintained.
It is not unfrequently the case that diff
ferent colonies Of bees will get to Guar
reling, and the stronger will overcome the
weaker and rob the hive of it's honey.
Occasionally, too, swarm that is placed
in a new home will abandon that home
and return to the parent hive. We think
we have an unusual case in the abandon
ment of e hive by all the bees late in the
fall, and with the hive well filled with
honey. This was discovered after fall
of snow. Not a single bee was in the
hive, and upon removing it the amount
of honey indicated that the departure
must have been made some time previ-
Gus. No cause could be assigned for so
singular movement.
The increasing number of eggs will
lead to larger demand on the part of
the hens for shell forming material. Keep
the bone and shell mill going.
Shelter the tender little ones from the
searching winds by setting the coop on
the sunny side of hedge. board fence or
building, or what is still better, set it
under an open shed.
Fowls that have spent the winter in
doors will require careful attention now.
Like tender plants, they must be harden
ed very gradually, or big crop of roup
will be the result. Let them run out
only on sunny, mild days, until they be-
come accustomed to the change.
We have heard objections made to
feeding swine on meal from corn and
cobs ground together, the reason given
being that it was feared the small bits of
cobs might injure the stomach of the
pigs. We have, however, in feeding this
for long while, never found that there
were any injurious effects. On the con-
trary, our experience has been that pigs